build-in-public Skill (samber): Plan What to Share

Makes Claude design a build-in-public practice for your open-source project: how much to share, how often, where, and what stays private.

Installs: 12.3K; on skills.sh
Stars: 7; on GitHub
Files: 7; besides SKILL.md
Updated: Nov 2026; last repo commit

build-in-public runs an interview, then walks nine steps. It fixes your top outcome, picks how far up a five-rung disclosure ladder to go, writes the condition that ends each disclosure, draws a boundary, answers the fear of copycats, sizes the cadence to your worst month, picks the platforms, plans the downside and sets how to measure it. The result is a charter you can follow for a year without Claude.

It triggers on mentions of building in public, a devlog, weekly updates, sharing metrics or revenue, oversharing, or a stalled practice. SKILL.md says it is not for a one-time launch and points to oss-launch for that. It bundles 6 reference files and an evals file, and no scripts.

Good for

Open-source maintainers thinking about sharing progress, metrics or revenue
Teams behind a developer tool that need a posting cadence they can hold
Maintainers whose public updates stalled and want to restart

Install build-in-public

Claude Code

Copy this prompt.

Install the build-in-public skill in Claude Code. Run this command:

/plugin marketplace add samber/developer-relations-skills
/plugin install developer-relations-skills@developer-relations-skills

Then check that it loaded and tell me how to use it.

2
Paste it into Claude Code. It shows the change and asks before running it.

Install the whole set, not one skill: the README says the skills reference each other, so picking one leaves those pointers going nowhere. The repo tree holds 93 skill folders. Fourteen of them bundle .py or .sh files; build-in-public bundles none. The tree holds no hooks, agents or MCP config files.

From the project README. Source.

What's in the skill

When it loads

Designs a sustainable build-in-public practice for an open-source project or developer tool: how far up the disclosure ladder to go (shipping log, decisions, failures, metrics, revenue), a cadence the maintainer can hold, the platform mix, and the boundaries that keep security, customer and roadmap detail off the public record. Use whenever someone mentions building in public, a devlog, weekly updates, an open-startup or transparency dashboard, sharing metrics or revenue openly, fear of copycats, oversharing, wanting to stop publishing numbers, or a stalled practice they want to restart, even if they never say "build in public". Covers solo maintainers, bootstrapped and funded devtools teams. Not for a one-time launch; use samber/developer-relations-skills@oss-launch.

Sections in SKILL.md

Interview
Step 1 - Fix the outcome, then the context
Step 2 - Brainstorm the practice, then choose a rung
Step 3 - Write the stop condition now
Step 4 - Draw the boundary
Step 5 - Answer the copying objection honestly
Step 6 - Size the cadence to the worst month
Step 7 - Choose the surfaces
Step 8 - Plan the downside
Step 9 - Measure the practice, not the vanity
Invocation examples
Deliverable
Goal primary and secondary outcome
Context solo / bootstrapped / funded, and whose consent is needed
Audience individual / company adoption, and what each needs to see
Rung what gets published, and what is explicitly excluded

Key facts

Author: Samuel Berthe (named in SKILL.md metadata and plugin.json)
License: MIT (SKILL.md, plugin.json and the LICENSE file agree)
Version: 1.0.5 (SKILL.md metadata)
Installs on skills.sh: 12,338 (Nov 2, 2026)
GitHub stars: 7 for the whole samber/developer-relations-skills repo (Nov 2, 2026)
Last repo commit: Nov 1, 2026
What it includes: 8 files in the git tree including SKILL.md. No scripts.
Needs: SKILL.md lists nothing to install. The skill folder bundles no scripts
Part of: The developer-relations-skills plugin: 93 skill folders in the git tree
Works in: Claude Code, Claude.ai, Codex, Cursor and Gemini CLI, as the README documents

What it includes

12 questions, one at a time, to pin goal, audience, capacity and limits
Question 5 asks how many hours a month you can spend in a bad month. That number sizes every later recommendation.
Read · Interview
Fixes the top outcome, who else has a claim on your numbers, who the reader is
Read · Step 1: outcome and context
Compares a shipping log, decisions-and-failures essays and an open-startup dashboard
It ranks the three, recommends one and may delete the dashboard for funded companies.
Write · Step 2: choose a rung
Writes the conditions under which each disclosure ends, before the first post
Write · Step 3: stop condition
Lists what is never public and runs a four-question pre-publish check
Write · Step 4: boundary
Sets the working rule on what to share and what to keep out
Write · Step 5: copying objection
Sizes posting frequency to the worst month and writes a pause rule
Write · Step 6: cadence
Picks one anchor surface you own and the amplifier channels
Write · Step 7: surfaces
Prepares responses for support overload, a bad reception and bad news
Write · Step 8: downside plan
Sets quarterly signals per outcome and a self-set pass condition
Write · Step 9: measurement
An 11-heading charter, agreed section by section
Headings run from Goal to Pause rule.
Write · Deliverable: charter

From the official docs

Permissions

Low risk

build-in-public is planning instructions with no scripts, and it may save notes to devrel-context.md. Our advice: check that file before you commit it.

What it can do

Read your data
Create and change things
Delete things
Read-only mode

Watch out for

It may save notes to devrel-context.md
SKILL.md tells Claude to keep task and project context in devrel-context.md when memory lives in a file, or in the memory system your tool already uses. Check the file before you commit it. github.com
It may check company examples on the web
SKILL.md says that if Claude can browse the web, it should confirm that an example company (Buffer, Ghost, Plausible) is still live before citing it. Browsing depends on your tool. github.com
The whole-set install adds 93 skills, 14 with scripts
The README says to install every skill. The git tree has 93 skill folders and 14 of them hold .py or .sh files. The tree holds no hooks, agents or MCP config files. github.com

Technical details

Turning on read-only	SKILL.md describes no read-only mode.
Sign-in and keys	SKILL.md names no account, key or token.
Scopes	Claude writes the plan or report in the conversation May save notes to devrel-context.md when memory lives in a file

Questions

What does build-in-public do?

It makes Claude interview you about your project, then write a build-in-public charter. The charter says how much you share, how often, where, and what you never publish.

How do I install it?

Use the install box at the top. The README says to install every skill in the repo because the skills point to each other, so the box shows whole-set routes.

Does it write my posts?

Its deliverable is a charter, not posts. SKILL.md ends by telling you to run any draft post through a humanizer skill before publishing.

Should I use it for a launch?

No. Its description says it is not for a one-time launch and points to the oss-launch skill in the same repo for that.

How is it different from the oss-launch skill?

build-in-public is the ongoing practice. SKILL.md says it is not for a one-time launch and names oss-launch for that, which it lists as the launch this practice follows.

Will it tell me to publish my revenue?

Not by default. SKILL.md says to delete the open-startup dashboard option for funded companies or when you list revenue as something you would refuse to publish. Funded companies are described as usually unable to publish revenue.

Is it safe to install?

The skill bundles no scripts. What you tell Claude about your project stays in your conversation, and Claude may save notes to a devrel-context.md file. The whole-set install adds 93 skills, some with scripts, so see the permissions section.

Information

updated Nov 2, 2026

Repository: samber/developer-relations-skills
Folder: skills/build-in-public

samber/developer-relations-skills skills.sh

Sources

Docs, issue trackers and discussions this page is built from.

Show all 6

README · github.com
marketplace.json · github.com
plugin.json · github.com
build-in-public SKILL.md · github.com
LICENSE · github.com
skills.sh listing · skills.sh